Expansiveness & Acharey Mot

The ancient rabbis said we were supposed to experience Passover personally.

We are to feel as if we had each lived slavery and had a form of personal liberation.

That we have come out of a narrow place, our own personal Egypt, or Mitzraim, into a more expansive existence.

As the Israelites did in the desert.

It sure is hard to live expansively in this moment.

We are gripped by fear, anger, rage, defensiveness, divisiveness.

This year, where was there room at our Passover seders to experience the joy of family and friends—

If only we shut it all off and shut it all out for the moment.

For Jews, and also for Palestinians and their supporters, there is so much unrest.

Many Jews feel alone and abandoned.

This, despite full economic support of the U.S. for Israel in this current war.

From the famous Hillel quote, they cry out, “Who will be for us if we are not for ourselves?”

And, “When has anyone been for us in reality?”

Other Jews cry out, “If we are only for ourselves, then who are we?”

The encampments across U.S. college campuses, the anti-semitic tropes by certain factions and individuals, the call for the National Guard, the violence of police, demonstrations across the world, the rise in hate speech and actions…

All together, these things have everyone horrified.

Incensed.

In disbelief.

For many, it’s like the rest of the world has come to a stop.

Nothing else matters.

Where is there room for expansive thinking?

Expansive feeling?

This week the Torah portion begins with the memory of Aaron’s two sons who were killed by God for offering an “alien fire.”

It quickly moves on to God telling Moses to pass on a message to his brother Aaron:

Do not “come in at will” to a certain place at the entrance of the Temple.

For God hangs out there in a cloud above it, and God’s presence will be too powerful for any person to live.

The text moves on again quickly to the sacrifice of two goats.

One is for God.

The other, for the mysterious “Azazel.”

The goat designated as Azazel is chosen by lots.

Is this Azazel creature a demon?

Our own “evil inclination”?

The things we say to slander others?

Our hate speech, maybe?

Is it a scapegoat?

There’s a rabbinic story that has the goat designated to Azazel being pushed off a cliff.

Thus will the person or family who has offered the goat be cleansed of their sins.

Even their clothing must be washed afterwards.

Otherwise, the guilt will stick.

In other words, a total transformation must happen.

Kind of like what’s supposed to take place through the course of Passover.

We come out the other end free.

In a Hassidic interpretation of Azazel, we are to spend as much time, money, energy dedicated to God’s purposes as to earthly concerns or attractions.

We need to be engaging in this debate that’s happening over Israel and the Palestinians.

It’s necessary.

People’s human rights are being violated.

Death by starvation and destruction are happening.

But we can’t choose the goat designated to Azazel by lots.

It’s not random.

The defense of Jews by right-wing Republicans is very deliberate—and can’t be trusted as sincere.

This war is very deliberate.

The decision to continue the destruction is not random.

Nor is the decision not to free hostages.

So, clouds where God hangs out and hides.

Will you please reveal yourself so we can find truth?

And hate speech and scapegoating.

Can we not get sucked into it and participate in it?

And fear.

Can we not get sucked into living in a place of fear, expecting to be attacked at any moment, whether verbally or physically?

Finally, can we keep an open mind?

It took a very long time for the Israelites to learn to live from a more expansive place.

Or did they ever?

Can we?

Shabbat Shalom.